God’s Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong

340 Pages·2003·3.91 MB·English

by  S. T. Joshi

To Robert M. Price
If there be an infinite Being, he does not need our help, we need not waste our
energies in his defence.
—Robert G. Ingersoll, God in the Constitution (1890)
One does not kill by anger but by laughter.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1891)
Introduction
1. The Pragmatical Professor: William James
2. The Bulldog and the Patrician: G. K. Chesterton and T. S. Eliot
3. Surprised by Folly: C. S. Lewis
4. God and the Yale Man: William E Buckley Jr.
5. Religion and Politics: Stephen L. Carter
6. Fire and Brimstone: Jerry Falwell
7. Hand-Wringing from the Literati: Reynolds Price and Annie
Dillard
8. Beautiful Souls: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
9. Chatting with the Big Guy: Neale Donald Walsch
10. Religion and Morals: Guenter Lewy
Conclusion
Index
ither there is one god, multiple gods, or none. Either there is such a thing
called the human soul or there isn't, and, if there is, it either can or cannot
survive the death of the body. Either Jesus Christ, if he existed, was the son of
God or he wasn't. Either Mohammed, if he existed, was God's prophet or he
wasn't.
That the essential doctrines of many of the world's major religions-especially
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam-are matters of truth or. falsity is itself a fact
around which no amount of sophistry or special pleading can get. Unfortunately
for them, evidence has been steadily accumulating for at least the last
halfmillennium to suggest that these doctrines are false. What has saved